Boing boing boing!
Busy day scheduled. It wouldn’t be so busy if Swedish businesses didn’t close so early (and open so late.) this could require more planning than my disorganized little brain can handle. Systembolaget (the state liquor/wine monopoly) is open 10:00-14:00, but the branch in the mall is open until 15:00. Stadsmuseum’s hours are 10:00-17:00. Militmuseum 12:00-15:00. Kronhusbodarna and Haga are probably 11:00-14:00. DesignTorget probably closes at 18:00. Nordstan closes at 18:00.
Slept in and skipped breakfast at the hotel. Getting tired of the frukost spread. (rolls and flatbread, cold cuts, cheese, boiled eggs, random preserved herring concoctions, tomatoes, cucumbers, dense mueseli cereals with yogurt). Walked to Kronhusbodarna, an arts enclave, found a chocolate factory, and ordered a nut roll for breakfast. (Almond-coated chocolate thing, about the size of an eclaire, with a light creamy filling.) Pure sugary goodness. Boing-boing-boing-boing sugar high! The Swedes love sweets: socialized health care obviously comes with free dental. (Side note: At a local 7-Eleven, there are four aisles of merchandise: two of them are full of candy and chocolates.)
There was a glass blower doing a random demonstration. He instructed an assistant to carefully blow (bad idea to suck on molten silicon) into a pipe with a glowing blob of glass on the other end. He paused to let the piece cool a little, then told her to continue blowing, even after it was clear that the glass balloon couldn’t hold. Pop! Crack! Boom! Shatter! What’s not to love about glassworks?
Walked across town to the military museum, but it wasn’t open. Still cold and wet today. Grumble. Walked back across town again to the Stadtsmuseum. Fortunately, downtown Gothenburg can be crossed easily enough in fifteen minutes. Went to the Stadsmuseum. Probably would have enjoyed the maritime history museum more. The Stadsmusueum is housed in the old Swedish East India Trading Company’s headquarters. They had the ruins of a Viking ship, but also had all sorts of stuff about trade with China and India. It said that much of Swedish design is influenced by the Chinese, even today. Modern Swedish design strikes me as more Japanese-influenced, but what do I know?
Went shopping for souvenirs at DesignTorget. My guidebook portrayed it as a chic place to pick up crafts from up-and-coming designers, but it turned out to be more of a yuppie store selling aesthetically-interesting goods from all over the world. (I will not buy a funky set of Boston Acoustics speakers in Sweden, thank you.) And I can pick up overpriced F.A. Porsche stuff at home. Somewhat disappointed: was hoping for more local flavor. Found a few random trinkets, though.
Went out to the Nordstan mall. It’s the biggest mall in Scandinavia, boasting over 150 stores. (Like wow, a mall. ) Some sort of bread contest was taking place, Twenty groups were presenting their breads. There were still a few batches coming out of the ovens as I arrived. The common areas of the mall were full of the smell of baking bread. Mmmmm. Some local television personality was interviewing the head bakers. I couldn’t understand them, and went off to find/devour a mini baguette.
Finally found a good fish market. It’s surprisingly clean and odorless. There’s a famous fish market in Gothenburg, but I think it’s mainly for wholesale. The supermarkets don’t have really interesting fish. Squid, prawns (heads still attached), crawfish, all sorts of random fish, and Norwegian salmon. The Swedes know (and love) their salmon (and char, trout, and related species), but they really prize Norwegian salmon. The market had Norwegian salmon steaks. The fat patterns on the Norwegian salmon was different. I don’t usually pay much attention to the white lines on salmon steaks, but the way it radiated outward was different-don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. I examined the salmon steaks to see if they were cut funny, or if it was an optical illusion. No. The marbling was distinctly different! Wonderful fish market. They even had Norwegian King Salmon fillets that were over 3 kg.
Wish I had a kitchen here. I’d buy Norwegian salmon steaks and “normal” salmon steaks, and take them home for comparison: poke, prod, slice, taste, cook, taste, season, taste… Sigh. When I travel, I should try to avoid conventional hotels, and find hotels that have kitchens in the units, or which would let me borrow their kitchens.
Bought a little tray of sashimi from the fish market for a late lunch. The fish here is excellent. The salmon sashimi (couldn’t tell if it was Norwegian or regular from the cut…need to learn to pay more attention) was very fresh, and had none of that heavy omega-3 fatty aftertaste to it. Yum. Note to self: when traveling to Scandinavia, eat more fish.
Several years ago, when a friend first traveled to Sweden, he came back with a large slab of Norwegian grav lox (raw salmon, cured with salt, spices, brandy…and sometimes lightly smoked) to share with his foodie friends. We ran out and got some Nova Scotian grav lox, and did a little taste test. The Norwegian salmon was smooth and supple. The Nova Scotian salmon was harsh, and actually more expensive. It would be nice to repeat this sort of taste test, even though I’m usually not a huge fan of raw salmon.
Hit the supermarket and pharmacy to see the sorts of things normal people buy. Always amusing to see what’s important. The Swedes really like candy and chocolate. In the supermarket, there were two full-length aisles of candy/chocolate (some single-source high cocoa content bars!), in addition to a wall (floor-to-ceiling) with hanging bags of cheap sugary concoctions, plus bins of bulk bag/weigh-your-own stuff. (One Swedish specialty is salt licorice… I love local flavor, but that sounds disgusting, especially since I despise black licorice.) There’s a decent selection of frozen Swedish meatballs (kottbular) and mixes for meatball sauce. Lots of cheeses and jars of herring. A large variety of “foreign” foods as well.
I had planned to hit the Systembolaget around 14:00 and browse through their wines. Because it’s a state-run monopoly, they have tremendous buying power, and clean out certain French vineyards that they happen to really like. It would have been a great opportunity to try finding some wines that aren’t available in the US. Unfortunately, everybody else in town seemed to have a similar idea. The Systembolaget in the mall is the only store in the city open until 15:00 on Saturday that sells anything stronger than light beer. There was an insane queue, and security guards would only let people in as other customers left. I’ll have to plan a little better next time.
Checked out the major department stores. H&M has something like six mini stores in the mall. Not sure what the differences are. Guess it’s somewhat like The GAP, with it’s Gap, Baby Gap, Gap Outlet, Old Navy and Banana Republic. Kinda glad that they don’t have the Gap in Sweden. H&M is more colorful than that.
Went to another department store to check out kitchen gadgets. Tons of lovely glassware. Imagine the stupidly expensive pieces of glassware at Crate and Barrel, at regular glassware prices. If I knew somebody getting married, perhaps I would have picked something up. Don’t need anymore glassware. Most of mine is in storage. Lots of really pretty kitchen gadgets. Kitchenware in Europe can be a lot more colorful and expressive than that in the US. I like that, but can’t really justify trying to lug a 220 volt red chrome toaster back home. (Swedish, shiny and colorful, but alas, I don’t need it, and it would be inconvenient to convert for US current.)
Walking back to the hotel around 16:30, I lamented the fact that I wouldn’t be able to bring a slab of Norwegian grav lox home. My flight is tomorrow. How would I keep the fish cold overnight, and then during the flight? Hmmm. It’s really cold out right now. I have a window. But the window doesn’t open very much. Though there is a rain gutter directly outside my window. If I could unscrew the limiters from the window, I could store the fish there overnight, and it would stay very cold until morning. But if it fell, that would be bad. And if I couldn’t get the window open enough, I’d have to bend some sort of coat hangers to snare it. And then, how would I keep it cold for the flight? The cargo holds aren’t temperature-controlled, and they get pretty chilly. And grav lox is cured, so bacteria should already be inhibited. But they sell Dutch grav lox (at grossly over-inflated prices) at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, so it obviously does keep. Maybe I could get some ice packs at the grocery store as well. Don’t recall seeing ice for sale at the grocery store, but I really wasn’t looking. How do they package the grav lox at Schiphol? Am I overthinking this? And what about US Customs? Would they allow it into the country or confiscate it? Well, they let K bring it back a few years ago, and he certainly looks scruffier than I. And none of us got sick from eating the grav lox. Maybe I should just get myself some grav lox and bring it down to breakfast tomorrow. If I had a traveling companion, it would be a lot easier to justify buying a large slab of lox for myself. Besides, I don’t have a lachsmesser to slice it. But wait, they do sell pre-sliced grav lox at the store; perhaps I could just pick up a small package for myself. I’d usually prefer to slice it fresh myself, but it’ll still be better than what I can do normally. Hold on. Yes, I am totally overthinking this. But I want to try to catch a show at the Opera House at 18:00. Who ever heard of anything at an opera house (aside from maybe a practice session) starting that early? But if I run back to the fish market and get a small fillet, I could browse around for something cold at the supermarket, run back to the hotel, try to hang the fish out the window, and dash off to the opera house. What the hell am I doing sitting around plotting? Move, move, move! Normal people don’t get this excited over a slab of fish, do they? Move, move, move!
Never said I was classy, but I do manage to eat well. (In the end, I got the fish, asked for some ice, bought a large plastic bag, left it (and several bottles of water) to freeze in the bathroom sink…)
Got back to the hotel. Too wet and tired to see the show at the opera house. Time for a nap.
Slept in and skipped breakfast at the hotel. Getting tired of the frukost spread. (rolls and flatbread, cold cuts, cheese, boiled eggs, random preserved herring concoctions, tomatoes, cucumbers, dense mueseli cereals with yogurt). Walked to Kronhusbodarna, an arts enclave, found a chocolate factory, and ordered a nut roll for breakfast. (Almond-coated chocolate thing, about the size of an eclaire, with a light creamy filling.) Pure sugary goodness. Boing-boing-boing-boing sugar high! The Swedes love sweets: socialized health care obviously comes with free dental. (Side note: At a local 7-Eleven, there are four aisles of merchandise: two of them are full of candy and chocolates.)
There was a glass blower doing a random demonstration. He instructed an assistant to carefully blow (bad idea to suck on molten silicon) into a pipe with a glowing blob of glass on the other end. He paused to let the piece cool a little, then told her to continue blowing, even after it was clear that the glass balloon couldn’t hold. Pop! Crack! Boom! Shatter! What’s not to love about glassworks?
Walked across town to the military museum, but it wasn’t open. Still cold and wet today. Grumble. Walked back across town again to the Stadtsmuseum. Fortunately, downtown Gothenburg can be crossed easily enough in fifteen minutes. Went to the Stadsmuseum. Probably would have enjoyed the maritime history museum more. The Stadsmusueum is housed in the old Swedish East India Trading Company’s headquarters. They had the ruins of a Viking ship, but also had all sorts of stuff about trade with China and India. It said that much of Swedish design is influenced by the Chinese, even today. Modern Swedish design strikes me as more Japanese-influenced, but what do I know?
Went shopping for souvenirs at DesignTorget. My guidebook portrayed it as a chic place to pick up crafts from up-and-coming designers, but it turned out to be more of a yuppie store selling aesthetically-interesting goods from all over the world. (I will not buy a funky set of Boston Acoustics speakers in Sweden, thank you.) And I can pick up overpriced F.A. Porsche stuff at home. Somewhat disappointed: was hoping for more local flavor. Found a few random trinkets, though.
Went out to the Nordstan mall. It’s the biggest mall in Scandinavia, boasting over 150 stores. (Like wow, a mall. ) Some sort of bread contest was taking place, Twenty groups were presenting their breads. There were still a few batches coming out of the ovens as I arrived. The common areas of the mall were full of the smell of baking bread. Mmmmm. Some local television personality was interviewing the head bakers. I couldn’t understand them, and went off to find/devour a mini baguette.
Finally found a good fish market. It’s surprisingly clean and odorless. There’s a famous fish market in Gothenburg, but I think it’s mainly for wholesale. The supermarkets don’t have really interesting fish. Squid, prawns (heads still attached), crawfish, all sorts of random fish, and Norwegian salmon. The Swedes know (and love) their salmon (and char, trout, and related species), but they really prize Norwegian salmon. The market had Norwegian salmon steaks. The fat patterns on the Norwegian salmon was different. I don’t usually pay much attention to the white lines on salmon steaks, but the way it radiated outward was different-don’t think I’ve ever seen that before. I examined the salmon steaks to see if they were cut funny, or if it was an optical illusion. No. The marbling was distinctly different! Wonderful fish market. They even had Norwegian King Salmon fillets that were over 3 kg.
Wish I had a kitchen here. I’d buy Norwegian salmon steaks and “normal” salmon steaks, and take them home for comparison: poke, prod, slice, taste, cook, taste, season, taste… Sigh. When I travel, I should try to avoid conventional hotels, and find hotels that have kitchens in the units, or which would let me borrow their kitchens.
Bought a little tray of sashimi from the fish market for a late lunch. The fish here is excellent. The salmon sashimi (couldn’t tell if it was Norwegian or regular from the cut…need to learn to pay more attention) was very fresh, and had none of that heavy omega-3 fatty aftertaste to it. Yum. Note to self: when traveling to Scandinavia, eat more fish.
Several years ago, when a friend first traveled to Sweden, he came back with a large slab of Norwegian grav lox (raw salmon, cured with salt, spices, brandy…and sometimes lightly smoked) to share with his foodie friends. We ran out and got some Nova Scotian grav lox, and did a little taste test. The Norwegian salmon was smooth and supple. The Nova Scotian salmon was harsh, and actually more expensive. It would be nice to repeat this sort of taste test, even though I’m usually not a huge fan of raw salmon.
Hit the supermarket and pharmacy to see the sorts of things normal people buy. Always amusing to see what’s important. The Swedes really like candy and chocolate. In the supermarket, there were two full-length aisles of candy/chocolate (some single-source high cocoa content bars!), in addition to a wall (floor-to-ceiling) with hanging bags of cheap sugary concoctions, plus bins of bulk bag/weigh-your-own stuff. (One Swedish specialty is salt licorice… I love local flavor, but that sounds disgusting, especially since I despise black licorice.) There’s a decent selection of frozen Swedish meatballs (kottbular) and mixes for meatball sauce. Lots of cheeses and jars of herring. A large variety of “foreign” foods as well.
I had planned to hit the Systembolaget around 14:00 and browse through their wines. Because it’s a state-run monopoly, they have tremendous buying power, and clean out certain French vineyards that they happen to really like. It would have been a great opportunity to try finding some wines that aren’t available in the US. Unfortunately, everybody else in town seemed to have a similar idea. The Systembolaget in the mall is the only store in the city open until 15:00 on Saturday that sells anything stronger than light beer. There was an insane queue, and security guards would only let people in as other customers left. I’ll have to plan a little better next time.
Checked out the major department stores. H&M has something like six mini stores in the mall. Not sure what the differences are. Guess it’s somewhat like The GAP, with it’s Gap, Baby Gap, Gap Outlet, Old Navy and Banana Republic. Kinda glad that they don’t have the Gap in Sweden. H&M is more colorful than that.
Went to another department store to check out kitchen gadgets. Tons of lovely glassware. Imagine the stupidly expensive pieces of glassware at Crate and Barrel, at regular glassware prices. If I knew somebody getting married, perhaps I would have picked something up. Don’t need anymore glassware. Most of mine is in storage. Lots of really pretty kitchen gadgets. Kitchenware in Europe can be a lot more colorful and expressive than that in the US. I like that, but can’t really justify trying to lug a 220 volt red chrome toaster back home. (Swedish, shiny and colorful, but alas, I don’t need it, and it would be inconvenient to convert for US current.)
Walking back to the hotel around 16:30, I lamented the fact that I wouldn’t be able to bring a slab of Norwegian grav lox home. My flight is tomorrow. How would I keep the fish cold overnight, and then during the flight? Hmmm. It’s really cold out right now. I have a window. But the window doesn’t open very much. Though there is a rain gutter directly outside my window. If I could unscrew the limiters from the window, I could store the fish there overnight, and it would stay very cold until morning. But if it fell, that would be bad. And if I couldn’t get the window open enough, I’d have to bend some sort of coat hangers to snare it. And then, how would I keep it cold for the flight? The cargo holds aren’t temperature-controlled, and they get pretty chilly. And grav lox is cured, so bacteria should already be inhibited. But they sell Dutch grav lox (at grossly over-inflated prices) at Schiphol airport in Amsterdam, so it obviously does keep. Maybe I could get some ice packs at the grocery store as well. Don’t recall seeing ice for sale at the grocery store, but I really wasn’t looking. How do they package the grav lox at Schiphol? Am I overthinking this? And what about US Customs? Would they allow it into the country or confiscate it? Well, they let K bring it back a few years ago, and he certainly looks scruffier than I. And none of us got sick from eating the grav lox. Maybe I should just get myself some grav lox and bring it down to breakfast tomorrow. If I had a traveling companion, it would be a lot easier to justify buying a large slab of lox for myself. Besides, I don’t have a lachsmesser to slice it. But wait, they do sell pre-sliced grav lox at the store; perhaps I could just pick up a small package for myself. I’d usually prefer to slice it fresh myself, but it’ll still be better than what I can do normally. Hold on. Yes, I am totally overthinking this. But I want to try to catch a show at the Opera House at 18:00. Who ever heard of anything at an opera house (aside from maybe a practice session) starting that early? But if I run back to the fish market and get a small fillet, I could browse around for something cold at the supermarket, run back to the hotel, try to hang the fish out the window, and dash off to the opera house. What the hell am I doing sitting around plotting? Move, move, move! Normal people don’t get this excited over a slab of fish, do they? Move, move, move!
Never said I was classy, but I do manage to eat well. (In the end, I got the fish, asked for some ice, bought a large plastic bag, left it (and several bottles of water) to freeze in the bathroom sink…)
Got back to the hotel. Too wet and tired to see the show at the opera house. Time for a nap.